We tell you who David Hume was and what his contributions were to philosophy. Also, his relationship with empiricism and rationalism.
Hume was one of the representatives of British empiricism.
Who was David Hume?
David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher known for being one of the most emblematic representatives of British empiricism. Within this current, Hume described how knowledge is acquired from sensations.
Many of his works were written in direct opposition to the philosophical rationalism of the 17th century. The best known are Treat of human nature (1739) and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748).
Hume’s thought focused on proving that knowledge begins with experience and not reason. He opposed Cartesian innatism, which is the thesis that innate ideas exist, and maintained that all ideas arise from perceptions acquired by the senses.
Hume is considered, along with René Descartes (1596-1650), Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), one of the most important philosophers of modern philosophy. Furthermore, as the greatest representative of empiricism, a current that opposed the rationalism of the 17th century, he studied it together with the philosophers John Locke (1632-1704) and George Berkeley (1685-1753).
Life of David Hume
David Hume Born on May 7, 1711 in Edinburgh, present-day Scotland. He lived in the century of the Enlightenment, and is one of its representatives. He grew up in a time of religious wars, so one of his philosophical motivations was the anti-dogmatic sentiment of fighting against religious extremes and intolerance. His other motivation was his passion for letters. Hume sought literary fame, as he says in his biography, fame that he acquired through his works.
Although he was a law student, He spent his early years dedicated to literatureIn 1734, physical and nervous exhaustion resulted in a country retreat at La Flèche, which is where the Jesuit college attended by Descartes was located. He then spent three years travelling in France.
At the age of 25 he wrote Treatise on human naturehis first book. He published it in 1739, at the age of 27, in London. In 1748 he published Philosophical essays on human understandingtitle later changed to An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
Some years after, as librarian of the Faculty of Law, he wrote England historyin three volumes. At that time he also wrote two books on religious matters, Dialogues on moral religion (1752) and Natural history of religion (1757). Both books were published posthumously and, for his ideas, Hume’s excommunication from the Scottish Protestant Church was called for.
Hume resided in France as the ambassador’s secretary, where he was received by thinkers such as Voltaire (1694-1778), Jean le Rond D’Alembert (1717-1783), Buffon (1707-1788), Denis Diderot (1713-1784), D ‘Holbach (1723-1789) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
In 1770, Back in England, he fell ill due to an intestinal problem.. He wrote a Autobiography and, after writing a defense of suicide in About suicide, died. Both works were published a year later by the economist Adam Smith (1723-1790), a friend of the philosopher.
Thought of David Hume
David Hume is one of the greatest representatives of British empiricismEmpiricism is characterized by maintaining that there is nothing in the intellect that has not previously been in the senses. This means that sensory experience is the foundation and origin of all knowledge.
For Hume, experience means “experimentation,” in the sense of “trying through,” which is why he is known as an “experimentalist empiricist,” which is how he presents his philosophy.
He developed what is known as experimental reasoning method by maintaining that every conclusion is supported by some argument that puts in contact with “what is given”, experience. This is what is usually called the naturalism of Hume.
Hume was an anti-innate, as he did not believe that there are innate ideas and maintained that there are no ideas that have not first been sensible impressions. In his construction of knowledge, when it came to discovering how ideas were formed, he developed a series of steps necessary to find any idea.
How is knowledge obtained?
For Hume, on the road to knowledge, the first thing one obtains is a perceptionwhich is something that is presented to the mind and which, depending on its vividness, can distinguish between impressions and ideas. An impression can be a smell, a color or even feelings.
If an individual cuts his hand, for example, he has an impression, but if he remembers that he cut his hand, he has an impression. idea. In turn, the impressions can be simple (colors, smells) and complex (a cup of coffee that brings together several simple impressions). There may also be impressions feeling (external, they come through the senses) and of reflexion (internal, they occur due to emotions). Impressions of reflection are always mediated by a idea, which can also be simple or complex.
Hume wanted to show that when you have an idea, you first had an impression from which it is derived.. He subdivides ideas into ideas of memory and fantasy or imagination, which are distinguished because in one case the order is maintained and in the other it is not. In both cases, the ideas are complex. This is what Hume will call copy principle.
Principles of association and questions of fact
The principles of association maintain that the ultimate components of mental life maintain relationships that are governed by principles. These principles refer, mechanically, from one perception to another and are classified as follows:
- Association by similarity. The individual associates by similarity according to an idea imprinted in memory. For example, he sees a portrait and thinks of the original model.
- Association by contiguity in space and time. The individual associates two things that were once given to him together in space and time, and when he sees one he goes to the other. For example, he sees a bib and thinks of a baby.
- Association by cause and effect. The individual makes an association because he remembers past cases in which the same cause occurred and, therefore, the same effect is expected. For example, he sees fire and knows that it burns because he once burned.
On the other hand, when you have a proposition or statement that speaks of a relationship of ideas, its truth is based on the principle of non-contradiction. So, all mathematical truths are relations of ideassince there is logical necessity in them, which implies that there is no contradiction. Knowledge of mathematics is an a priori truth.
Relations of ideas, however, are a matter of factAny statement of a matter of fact can be denied without contradiction. In them the truth of the statement is based on experience and is not a priori, so that knowledge of truth is obtained a posteriori.
Knowledge of causality has to do with questions of fact. In matters of fact, knowledge does not always have to do with the testimony of the senses or memory. Inferences are made about matters of fact almost all the time, as we jump from something given to something not given. For example, if the pen is dropped it falls, if voices are heard through the window it is assumed that someone is walking on the sidewalk. So, There are questions of fact and inferences about questions of fact.These inferences are always made on the basis of causal connections.
Causality
Questions of fact are not only based on memory and senses, they are also based on everyday experienceIndividuals constantly jump from something given to something not given and make inferences about the world that are not based on the principle of non-contradiction but on cause-and-effect connections.
In An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingHume directly analyzes how particular causal connections appear, while in the Treatise on human nature begins with the principle of causality. This holds that “Everything that comes into existence must have a cause of its existence.” The truth of this statement is empirical, not necessary. It is contingent and arises by generalization from the observation of particular causal connections. For example, if Object 1 has “x” cause, and Object 2 has “x” cause, and so on, then every object that comes into existence has a cause.
Works of David Hume
David Hume’s work comprises a number of publications made during his lifetime and some titles published posthumously. The full list is as follows:
- A nice story of my life (1734)
- Treatise on Human Nature (1739)
- Summary of a recently published book: Entitled Treatise on Human Nature (1740)
- Essays on morals and politics (1741-1742)
- Letters from a gentleman to his Edinburgh friend (1745)
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
- Research Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751)
- Political speeches (1752)
- Four dissertations: Natural history of religion. Of the passions. Of tragedy. On the criterion of taste (1757)
- History of England (1754-1762)
- Natural history of religion (1757)
- My life (1776)
- Dialogues on Natural Religion (1779)
Reception of the work of David Hume
The work of David Hume influenced a wide number of philosophers and thinkers throughout historyIt is well known that Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) claimed that it was Hume who awakened him from the dogmatic sleep of reason.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) also attributed a large part of his influences to Hume, as well as Alfred Jules Ayer (1910-1989), Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). ), Karl Popper (1902-1994) and Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), among others.
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References
- Hume, D. (2004). Research on human understanding (Vol. 216). AKAL Editions.
- Hume, D. (2011). The Letters of David Hume: 1766-1776 (Vol. 2). Oxford University Press, USA.
- Hume, D. (2020). Treat of human nature. Verbum Publishing.
- Garrett, D. (2014). Hume. Routledge.